News and Information
Mayor Helen Zille encourages Uthango's work...
Responding on a blog entry at CAPEINFO, the Mayor of Cape Town gave a few words of support...[ By Dorette Steenkamp on 12 October, 2007 ]
"To the Uthango Social Investments Team, thank you for your message, I fully agree that the City must partner with community based organisations and the private sector to achieve results - we cannot pretend to be able to be all things to all people, and so we need partners to help us further our goals. Please keep me updated on the progress that you are making with Councillor Grindrod and his Executive Director, Mansoor Mohamed". Alderman Helen Zille (Mayor City of Cape Town, South Africa)
Uthango has not been successful in securing a meeting with the Mayor, after a formal request earlier in September 2007. Her office treated our request gracefully and we have accepted the answer, for now. On a positive note, the local Sub-Council Chairperson, Councillor Demetri Qually contacted us subsequently and we will be discussing some of our local economic development iniatives with him soon. In South Africa, local government is close to communities and made up of regional sub-councils serving certain areas. They have a critical role to play in developing healthy neighbourhoods. Unfortunately non-delivery - or worst, selective delivery - has become an unfortunate growing trend linked to this tier of government.
For Uthango as a civil society organisation with many clients in Cape Town's poorest urban areas, we eventually had to appeal directly to the Mayor of Cape Town after perceived lack of will and incompetence (!) by local government to action the final phase of award-winning Uthango Enterprise Project sponsored initially by the Rotary Club of Claremont.
Ms. Zille's personal history in South Africa brings her close to our organisation's ideals: "Her parents, who were half Jewish, fled Nazi Germany to South Africa. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Zille began her career as a political journalist for the Rand Daily Mail, where she famously exposed the truth behind Steve Biko’s death. At this time she became politically active in the Democratic Party. She was previously involved in the Black Sash movement, the End Conscription Campaign, the South Africa Beyond Apartheid Project and the Cape Town Peace Committee...Zille is also able to speak Xhosa" (Except from the Helen Zille website),
We hope that we will be able to move forward with more active support from local government than in the past four years... We have the wonderful pleasure to be an a-political organisation. We have always had staff members in our team that support the UDM, DA, ANC, ID, ACDP and other smaller parties. Although political propaganda has no place in our offices, we do respect and celebrate differences as part of our shared democratic heritage as equals.
So what is next for us now? Hopefully we will be meeting soon with Councillor Grindrod and his Executive Director, Mansoor Mohamed, as facilitated by Councillor Qually. On the agenda: Our specific projects in the city and suggested ways we have selected to make a difference that can last...And yes, Madam Mayor, we will keep you posted!
Uthango has not been successful in securing a meeting with the Mayor, after a formal request earlier in September 2007. Her office treated our request gracefully and we have accepted the answer, for now. On a positive note, the local Sub-Council Chairperson, Councillor Demetri Qually contacted us subsequently and we will be discussing some of our local economic development iniatives with him soon. In South Africa, local government is close to communities and made up of regional sub-councils serving certain areas. They have a critical role to play in developing healthy neighbourhoods. Unfortunately non-delivery - or worst, selective delivery - has become an unfortunate growing trend linked to this tier of government.
For Uthango as a civil society organisation with many clients in Cape Town's poorest urban areas, we eventually had to appeal directly to the Mayor of Cape Town after perceived lack of will and incompetence (!) by local government to action the final phase of award-winning Uthango Enterprise Project sponsored initially by the Rotary Club of Claremont.
Ms. Zille's personal history in South Africa brings her close to our organisation's ideals: "Her parents, who were half Jewish, fled Nazi Germany to South Africa. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Zille began her career as a political journalist for the Rand Daily Mail, where she famously exposed the truth behind Steve Biko’s death. At this time she became politically active in the Democratic Party. She was previously involved in the Black Sash movement, the End Conscription Campaign, the South Africa Beyond Apartheid Project and the Cape Town Peace Committee...Zille is also able to speak Xhosa" (Except from the Helen Zille website),
We hope that we will be able to move forward with more active support from local government than in the past four years... We have the wonderful pleasure to be an a-political organisation. We have always had staff members in our team that support the UDM, DA, ANC, ID, ACDP and other smaller parties. Although political propaganda has no place in our offices, we do respect and celebrate differences as part of our shared democratic heritage as equals.
So what is next for us now? Hopefully we will be meeting soon with Councillor Grindrod and his Executive Director, Mansoor Mohamed, as facilitated by Councillor Qually. On the agenda: Our specific projects in the city and suggested ways we have selected to make a difference that can last...And yes, Madam Mayor, we will keep you posted!
My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?